Auxiliary Vessels
by SouthPlaq
Summary: One-Shots about World War II-era Auxiliary Vessels that have been summoned to assist the KanMusu in the Abyssal War. One Chapter per Character.
1. The (Other) Japanese Repair Ship

**Auxiliary Vessels: One-Shots about KanMusu* that were not built for frontline naval combat. Based off of real World War Two-era Auxiliary Ships and the events that occured during their service time, except now during the Abyssal War. Some stories will be longer and some will be shorter, mainly depending on the ship(s) in question. Enjoy.**

 ***ALL characters are of my creation, except for those already established in the Kantai Collection canon**. **I do not claim ownership of Kantai Collection or its established Characters.** **Also, feel free to suggest a ship in your reviews and I will see if I can do a chapter on her in the future.**

 **Chapter 1:** **The (Other) Japanese Repair Ship**

Part 1: Learning From Your Youngers:

\- It was a beautiful and calm Tuesday morning at the Yokosuka Naval Base on Japan's eastern shores. The birds were out and chirping and the rolling hills off in the distance were beginning to turn green, signalling the beginning of springtime. A moist and cool ocean breeze, one of the last remnants of the winter, lightly blew its way from the sea towards the inland. Through all of this, the Japanese Navy's Repair Ship, Akashi, was making her way to the Admiral's Office to answer his request for her appearance.

Since she spent most of her days down in the Workshop or in the Repair Pools, Akashi made sure to take her time in arriving to her destination. Walking through the Naval Base's Park often improved her mood, so she took great liberty to slowly and happily skip through the grass, making sure she stopped often to breathe in the fresh air. She wouldn't know when she would next have the chance to do so.

As she neared the end of the park, Akashi spotted a small patch of blooming flowers off of the stone path ahead to the right. As she got closer to it, one particular specimine caught her eye: A small, lone red flower among a slew of green and yellow ones. She stopped and bent down to pluck it from the ground.

' _You're quite beautiful, aren't you young flower... Oh, if only the Navy needed biological research vessels.'_ Akashi thought to herself as she twirled the flower gently between her forefinger and thumb.

While Akashi loved her work, she often resented being the only person that was capable of maintaining the Repair Baths and performing the more surgical fixes for the fleet girls. The only other KanMusu that could possibly help her, the Light Cruiser Yuubari, was usually tasked with weapons and technology development in the Research Center on the other side of the Base. Thus, Akashi was forced to perform the repairs and maintenance of the fleet alone. It was a lot of work, and it definitely took its toll on her, both mentally and physically.

She also loved botany, and spent what little free time she had reading books and browsing the internet about different plant species as well as many aspects of plant life. Since a university degree in Phytology was completely out of the question due to her circumstances, she could only ever consider it as an amateur hobby.

Sighing heavily as her attention returned to her orders, Akashi placed the flower she had picked in her hair above her right ear. She then slowly continued the trek to the Admiral's Office.

Upon arriving in the lobby of the Administrative Offices building, the Battleship Mutsu waved to her from behind the reception counter.

"Here to see the Admiral~?" Mutsu asked playfully as Akashi walked up to her.

"Yeah, he called me here for something. I'm hoping beyond hope that he tells me he's giving me some time off of work."

Mutsu giggled, "Well, not quite, but I think you'll be quite pleased nonetheless."

"Whatever you say!" Akashi responded, smiling.

Walking past Mutsu and proceeding down the hallway and to the left, she passed the locked and darkened 'Sorties and Operations' room (with a patrolling Musashi inside!) and came up to the Command Cruiser Ooyodo's personal desk just outside of the Admiral's Office.

Ooyodo, however, was nowhere to be seen, so Akashi decided to knock on the Office door herself.

 _~Knock, knock~_

"Enter!" She heard the Admiral say. So, she let herself in.

Before her was the usual sight in the Admiral's Office: The Admiral himself was seated behind his large U-shaped desk, all of his papers and files neatly stacked and sorted; the Battleship Nagato, his longtime Secretary and Second-in-Command, was standing behind and to the right of the Admiral (from Akashi's point of view, that is) leaning against the wall next to the grand window at the end of the room; and Ooyodo was off to the left side of the room, with the usual stack of papers and folders on a clipboard in one hand, and an ink pen in the other. Lastly, the Destroyer Fubuki's desk, as normal, was empty and dust-ridden, save for a framed photograph of her and a neatly typed note taped onto the wooden surface that read, _'Starter Ship Fubuki, You Always Did Your Best_ _. 1927-1942 and 2013-2017. Rest In Peace.'_

Something quite unusual about the otherwise normal scene was a woman standing in front of the Admiral's desk that Akashi had never seen before. Because of the rigging that was strapped to her back, it was immediately apparent that she was a recently summoned KanMusu, but her class, type, and role were up for debate. She was about the size of one of the modern heavy cruisers, possibly a little larger, with Japanese facial features and long black hair that was tied together at the very end. Her rigging was rather large with warship-type designs and features, but it had no large calibre guns. Instead it only sported a few outdated 80mm dual-purpose cannons and some 25mm and 13mm anti-aircraft weapons. No flight deck was visible, but Akashi did notice a pair of cranes protruding from either side of the woman's shoulders. Perhaps she was some kind of seaplane tender?

The woman very much resembled Mizuho's looks, in fact, but she also possessed an elderly and motherly aura similar to that of Houshou or Mamiya. As Akashi walked closer to address the Admiral, it became clear that this mystery woman was indeed a much older ship-girl than anyone else on the Base.

The Admiral stood up and smiled, "Welcome Akashi. I believe that we have some important things to discuss."

The unknown woman gasped and turned to face Akashi. She covered her mouth with her hands at the mention of Akashi's name. Her eyes gleamed with happiness as she struggled to hold back tears.

Akashi was dumbfounded at her reaction. "Admiral, may I ask who this woman is?"

"Yes." The Admiral responded as he began walking around to the front of his desk, "She is why I asked you to come here. This is the Repair Ship Asahi, you may remember her from the distant past."

Upon hearing the name, Akashi's mind ventured back to August of 1939, shortly after her commissioning in her metallic form. She remembered working alongside an old warship of some kind that had been converted to repair duties, with the pair performing maintenance on ships together for a few years in Japan. Akashi never caught her name, but her crew gained a lot of valuable experience from the already seasoned crew of the other repair ship. This lasted until March of 1942, when that ship departed for Singapore and never returned home. Akashi never heard what had happened to her, but she assumed she had been sunk.

Akashi and her crew worked alone in repairing the fleet for the rest of the war until her demise came on March 30, 1944 from American dive bombers in the Palau Islands after attempting to escape from Truk Atoll to the Philippines.

Holding back a chill from that particular memory, Akashi looked at the woman, now revealed to be Asahi, with steady eyes.

"Asahi... You were that other ship weren't you? The one that trained my crew before the War?"

"Yes, I was. It's so good to see you again, I thought I never would." Asahi replied as she embraced Akashi with a warm, sincere hug.

Akashi returned the embrace, and as tears welled up in her eyes she wondered if this was what it felt like to view someone as their 'mother'. After all, this woman did teach her everthing in the beginning and was most likely the main reason that she survived that disaster of a War for as long as she did.

' _I'm sure it is, or something close to it.'_ She thought to herself, her heart feeling warmer than ever before.

After a few moments, the pair let go of each other and returned their attention to the Admiral, who was smiling brightly.

"It's good to see that you both will get along so well." He said, "I am also glad that we now have another Repair Ship in the fleet, as I know that all of the work is very difficult for one ship to accomplish. I'm just sorry that we couldn't summon her sooner."

"No problem, Admiral!" Akashi responded cheerfully, wiping a few lingering tears away from her eyes and grabbing a hold of Asahi's hand, "We've got this covered from now on!"

Silence filled the room for a moment before Asahi cleared her throat.

"Ahm..."

"About that." The Admiral stated worriedly, adjusting his hat. "You see, when Asahi was summoned, her rigging was that of when she was a Repair Ship, but her mindset is that from when she was still a warship."

"So, I've forgotten nearly everything when it comes to healing our kindred." Asahi interrupted, "It appears that this time you will need to train me, if you would have me?"

Akashi allowed this proposition to sink in for a moment, ' _This will almost certainly put a dent in some of_ _my work output_.' She thought, _'But in the end I will have more free time to get everything done since Asahi_ _would be able to take some of the work-load off of me. Not to m_ _ention, I would get to have more off time and be able to study botany more... But most importantly, I will be able to repay the service that she paid to me all of those years ago...'_

Needless to say, her decision was quite easy.

"Sir, it would be more than an honor to retrain the one who first trained me." Akashi declared with a big grin.

"Then it's settled!" The Admiral shouted in approval. "I'll make sure that Asahi's accomodations will be ready by tonight. I'm giving you both the rest of the day off, so make sure to show her around the base and introduce her to as many of the girls as you can manage, and please be ready for tomorrow."

With that, the Admiral returned to his seat and began typing on his computer and making phone calls.

Akashi, overwhelmed with joy and excitement, skipped over to the door.

"Come on Asahi, let's go and get to work!" She said, holding the door open for her new partner.

"Yes, let's."

And they walked out together.

Part 2: What the Past Brings:

\- The next morning Akashi awoke with, for the first time in a long time, a clear and relaxed mind. The remainder of the previous day had been spent showing Asahi around the base, including the Repair Baths, the Workshop, Mamiya's Cafeteria, various leisure and relaxation areas, and finally her new living quarters.

Today was to be the start of Asahi's official re-training process, and hopefully a new and prosperous friendship between two old partners. Not wanting to waste any more time, Akashi leaped out of bed at 6:45 AM and quickly got ready for the day ahead. Not 5 minutes later, with a final check of her hair, she bolted out of the door and down the hallway to Asahi's new living space.

Not thinking properly, mainly out of her excitement, Akashi opened the door without knocking.

"Good morning Asahi! Are you ready to start your training!?"

 _Silence._

Puzzled, Akashi looked around and saw that Asahi was knelt down on a rug in the middle of the floor off to the left, completely unfazed by her method of entry.

"Erm... Asahi?"

There was still no response from the woman, and awkwardness began to fill the air.

"Oh, sorry. Well, I'll see you down in the Workshop in a little bit." Akashi said, now completely red-faced and embarassed.

She quickly and quietly exited the room and made her way down to the Workshop for 7:00 AM to start her daily routine of warming up all of the machines and tools: First came the conveyor belt system that connected the Workshop to the Repair Docks, then came the furnaces and various other contraptions and machines. Finally, Akashi hooked up the numerous power tools that she used on a daily basis and made sure that they all still ran, then she procceded to begin filling out the daily log.

This process took nearly 30 minutes, and the time was now 7:30 AM. Since the day's operations didn't start until 8:00 AM, Akashi decided to run down to Mamiya's for a quick to-go breakfast.

On a sticky note she hastily wrote, "Went for breakfast, will be back very soon. -Akashi" just in case Asahi arrived while she was gone.

Jogging out of the Workshop and down the way to the Cafeteria, she wondered how long it would take for Asahi to come down to work.

' _It would be best for her to arrive at 8:00 AM so I could at least have some time to show her all of the equipment and tools before the first operation ends and we get to work on repairs.'_ Akashi hoped to herself as she opened the door to Mamiya's.

Walking up to the counter where Mamiya herself stood ready to take orders, Akashi was delighted to see that the normally long line of ship-girls (mostly destroyers) had cleared out and were already seated with their food. So, she walked up unopposed to place her order.

"Good morning Mamiya, I'll have the egg and rice breakfast meal with American sausage, to-go please?" Akashi asked with a big smile.

"Anything to drink with that?" Mamiya asked as she quickly wrote the order down.

"Nah, I'm stocked up on drinks in the Workshop as it is."

"That's fine!" Mamiya replied cheerfully as she handed the order to her assistant Irako, who in turn yelled it out to the kitchen staff.

"ONE EGG AND RICE BREAKFAST WITH GAIJIN SAUSAGE, TO-GO!"

Within moments the clattering of cooking utensils filled the air of the kitchen and echoed out into the Cafeteria. Meanwhile, Mamiya opened her log book and checked off Akashi's name.

"Well, it looks like you're my last customer of the morning. Everyone else has already received their breakfast.' Mamiya said with delight.

"Everyone? Even our new arrival?" Akashi asked.

"Oh, are you talking about you're new work partner? Yes, she came here. In fact, she is still sitting over there. She ordered a rather large meal, which I did not expect." Mamiya replied as she pointed off to a far corner of the Cafeteria where, sure enough, Asahi was taking her time eating a large plate of rice and other foods stacked on top.

"Thanks, Mamiya. Holler at me when my food is ready, I need to go talk to her about being late." Akashi replied with a slight hint of impatience.

"Oh, her first discipline? Now, don't be too hard on her. She seems like a traditional lady, and you know that they like to have a strict schedule for themselves. Try to work it out first!"

Akashi hesitated for a moment. She hadn't really given it thought that the age and cultural differences between herself and Asahi would impact their work. Despite the two of them being Japanese, they lived in radically different times and were influenced by them accordingly.

Of course, over time Asahi would open up to this modern world, just as all of the other girls had, but that could take months or even years. Akashi had to come up with a way to convince her to arrive earlier to work, or at least get her to eat her rather large breakfast at the Workshop instead of the Cafeteria.

"Hey, Asahi." She started as she arrived at her table, "I didn't know you would come here first. I was going to show you the daily process that I go through to prepare for the day."

Asahi looked up from her meal with a disappointed look.

"I'm sorry my dear Akashi. I didn't expect work to start so early. Back in my day we had at least an hour of meditation and prayer time before the work day began."

"No, It's fine! It's just that we don't exactly have that now. Our work day starts at 8:00 AM and continues for the rest of the day, and sometimes even into the night." Akashi responded as she sat down across the table.

"I'm terribly sorry. Please accept my apologies. From now on I will arrive at 7:30 AM to begin work. You can show me the warming up process tomorrow. Today I am eager to re-learn the ways of healing our sisters-in-arms!" Asahi declared with a strong voice.

"Sure, 7:30 AM is fine from now on. There are only a few sorties and expeditions planned for today, so you should definitely get some practice before the big days ahead. The first expedition for today is at 8:00 AM, so please try to be at the Workshop before then." Akashi replied, relieved that Asahi was quick to change her ways for her.

"Yes, I promise." Asahi said, bowing her head before continuing to eat.

Just then, Mamiya yelled out, "Akashi, your order!"

"Well, I've got to go get my food and then go back to the Workshop. I'll wait for you there. Whatever happens, we will make this work, okay." Akashi stated with reasurrance.

"Yes, we will. I, the Battlesh... I mean, the Repair Ship Asahi will make sure to follow your example!"

With a chuckle and a smile, Akashi stood and left the table to grab her breakfast.

 _'So, she was a Battleship once, huh? That should prove an interesting topic for the future.'_ Akashi thought as she left the Cafeteria for the Workshop.

Part 3: Memories Unfolded:

\- As Akashi licked her chopsticks clean, she heard the doors to the Workshop creak open. Her new workmate had finally decided to show up. The time was now 7:57 AM, and the daily operations were about to begin.

"You ready?" Akashi asked as she put on her gloves and hard hat.

"Yes, show me everything that is necessary and I will do my best!" Asahi replied.

Luckily, Akashi had just enough time to show off most of the basic duties that Asahi would be performing and how to do them. She reserved the more complicated matters to herself, at least until she had trained her partner enough to where she could be trusted with more serious matters.

Needless to say, the first day went off without a hitch! Asahi quickly got into a rhythm, sending out Instant Repair Buckets when asked and quickly cleaning the Repair Pools after one of the girls had finished using one so another could quickly go in after.

Of course, she did occasionally get lost and had to ask where a certain tool was or where fresh towels were located from time to time. Akashi didn't mind, as she was already way ahead of schedule compared to when she worked alone.

Hours later, just after 11:30 AM, Yuubari made her way into the Workshop, just as Asahi was leaving to attend to the latest batch of girls at the Repair Pools. The two nearly ran into each other in the doorway.

"Oh, m-my apologies Miss." Asahi said as she bowed in respect.

"No worries!" Yuubari replied cheerfully. "You go ahead, I gotta talk to Akashi for a moment."

Raising her head and saying nothing, Asahi quickly walked out of the door and down to the Repair Pools.

"You like her?" Yuubari asked as the doors slammed shut.

"Of course! She's an ex-battleship apparently, so she eats a lot and has a strict personal schedule that affects when she shows up to work, but that's about it. She doesn't ask questions or complain about the work. It's not really that much work yet anyway, I'm still doing the complex stuff. I'll teach her everything in due time."

"An ex-battleship you say? What's her name?" Yuubari asked inquisitively.

"Her name is Asahi. A name oddly similar to mine, now that I think about it, but we are far from sister ships. We just happen to share the same role."

"OH! I think I know her! She's a Pre-Dreadnought, or at least she was. I believe she is a Tsushima veteran."

"A Tsushima veteran?!" Akashi exclaimed, "That's awesome! But how do you know that? All of that stuff happened way before you or I even existed."

"Well, shortly after I was commissioned in my metal form in 1923, I remember seeing her being used as a tender ship or something... And by 'seeing', I mean nearly running into her when I was returning to harbor after one of my trial runs. Being a new type of ship design and all, those sailors didn't really know how to use me quite yet." Yuubari replied, with a hint of a smirk at that last statement.

"Yeah, you are pretty hard to get used too." Akashi replied playfully.

"Oh, whatever." Yuubari scoffed, "Anyway I had a lot of free time in the 20's and 30's to get to know everyone, even you. So that's how I know her, but you should definitely ask her about herself during lunch today. I'm sure she would love to spill some of those old memories."

"I definitely will. I never knew anything about her back then, and I would love to get to know her now."

"That's great." Yuubari smiled, "By the way, I came here to ask if you have a spare welding mask. I broke mine earlier by accidentally sitting on it."

"You sat on it? That's impossible! You must have modified your stern or something to be able to do that." Akashi teased.

"Are you trying to say that I don't have a butt?!" Yuubari steamed rather angrily, while also grabbing her nearly non-existant rear in embarassment.

"Haha! I'm just jokeing Yuubari! The spare masks are over there." Akashi pointed to a large table with lots of protective equipment, with many welding masks neatly placed in a row that spanned the length of the table.

Yuubari walked over and grabbed the first one in line, "I'm sorry for getting loud, and thanks for the mask. I'll get out of your hair now. Maybe now that you have some help in here, we can get back to working on that hydroponics project of ours again in your spare time, eh?"

"Maybe so, but it'll still have to wait awhile. See you later girl."

"Don't you forget! Bye now." Yuubari yelled as she left the Workshop.

As the doors slammed shut once again, Akashi sighed as she finished repairing Nagato's head gear. Somehow, she had got it jammed in one of the destroyers' chest armor pieces on her last mission. Oddly, this seemed to happen quite a lot, and while most of the time it seemed accidental, under some circumstances it often sent Akashi's mind into a dilema.

' _That whole Nagamon thing is just an internet meme, right?'_ She often questioned to herself, to which she always answered, _'Yes, it must be. There is no way an honorable warship like Nagato could be such a pervert, especially to young destroyers. It's probably just the work of deranged teenagers online who want to make fun of her... NO! It's got to be the work of some filthy Abyssals looking to discredit her name through the power of the World Wide Web!'_

At any rate, she radioed Asahi a few moments later over their walkie-talkies, "Hey, when you're done in the Pools, I need you to come back here to run an errand for me and then we will head to lunch together."

"Right away."

Not 30 seconds later, Asahi walked into the Workshop. She hadn't even broke a sweat despite treking back and forth from the Workshop and the Repair Pools over a dozen times now.

"Alright, all I need you to do is to take this to Nagato in the Admiral's Office. If nobody's there, just leave it on his desk, then meet me at Mamiya's for lunch. Ok?"

"I will go as quickly as my boilers will allow me." Asahi replied with a smile.

As she turned and left the Workshop, Akashi proceeded to make sure that everything else was taken care of so she could get out of there herself. She had noticed that her stomach was rumbling much louder than usual, and the light pains from her hunger made it frustrating to work and hard to concentrate.

"I've got to start eating bigger breakfasts." She said aloud as she rubbed her belly, "But no matter, time to head out!"

Rushing over to Mamiya's Cafeteria, Akashi saw that Asahi was already waiting outside. Silently, she stood up from the bench and walked inside, Akashi quickly following. The ordering line was relatively short, with only a handful of destroyers as well as the Heavy Cruisers Aoba and Kinugasa ahead of them. Without warning, Aoba turned around, camera in hand, and snapped a photo of Asahi and giggled to herself.

"Aoba! That's not very kind. Why don't you ask a person for permission before you just photograph them?" Kinugasa protested at her sister's actions.

"Aw, she won't die from it Kinugasa. No harm done." Aoba responded, redirecting her attention to Asahi, "May I ask your name, lovely lady?"

"Oh, m-my name is Asahi. I'm the new Repair Ship. There is no need to be f-flattering, I'm just here to do what is required of me." The ex-battleship responded as a flush of red filled her cheeks.

"Is that so?" Aoba responded as she scribbled some notes into her Journalistic Journal (TM), "Fascinating! Everyone will love to hear about you in this weekend's newspaper!"

"O...Oh, you think?" Asahi asked rather timidly.

"Of course! Everyone needs some friends to make it through the day to day stuff in this war. You seem like an old-fashioned kinda girl, and my article will get you the type of friends you need!" Aoba said with a confident smile.

"More like it'll just get her harassed by curious destroyers." Kinugasa retorted.

"Sister! That only happened once!" Aoba responded, "Besides, if you ask me, a little bit of harassment is worth a lifetime of... ~ _thwack!~"_

"It's our turn to order Aoba, you go first." Kinugasa directed after smacking her sister on the head.

"OH! Yes, I'm so hungryyy!"

"I'm very sorry about my sister. Please forgive her for intruding in your personal space." Kinugasa quickly apologised as Aoba began telling Mamiya what she wanted to eat in the background.

"N..No, no! It's okay. She's fine." Asahi reassured, now visibly sweating.

All the while Akashi noticed that, as proper as Asahi tried to be, she appeared to have some form of social anxiety. She stuttered, her face turned slightly red, and she also began to sweat as she talked to the Aoba-sisters. She had also acted slightly strange when Yuubari had entered the Workshop earlier.

A few moments later, Akashi ordered her food and went to sit down with Asahi. She decided that it was time to break the ice with her.

"So, how do you like your first day of work so far, Asahi?"

"It's rather good. I enjoy cleaning the baths and seeing the girls' wounds heal before my very eyes. It's almost magical!"

"Well, it kind of is. I don't quite know how to explain it myself. Something about fairies?"

"Oh, well regardless, it has reminded me of my new role in this fleet. I am beginning to accept that combat is no longer my forte."

"Speaking of that..." Akashi began, "I did some research and saw that you were once a Battleship. Wanna talk about it?"

"If you wish, what would you like to know?"

"Nothing in particular, just anything you would like to talk about. No pressure."

"Well, I was a what would be called a Pre-Dreadnought. We were the best fighting ships to ever sail the seas, don't you let anyone ever tell you different!" Asahi declared.

"Why is that?" Akashi pressed.

"Well, I think we proved that at Tsushima. I know the Dreadnoughts had their day at Jutland, but it wasn't a decisive battle, not like the glorious Battle of Tsushima!"

"Well, that's definitely your opinion." Akashi laughed.

"Yes, it probably is. I know that advances in technology eventually made us obsolete, I lived long enough to see it. Naval warfare gradually turned away from short-range brawls and embraced long-range gunnery, as well as the use of aircraft and, um, su-submarines."

Akashi again noticed that slight nervousness in Asahi's voice.

"You okay? You sounded upset when you spoke of submarines."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just... I never quite got used to them s-snorkeling around in the oceans. They just weren't really a big thing during my early years."

"I see. Well, do you mind if I ask about what you did later in your career from back then?"

"Of course!" Asahi smiled, "After the First World War ended, I was disarmed and used as a Submarine Tender and later as a Barracks Ship. I almost never left port during those times. In 1927, I was converted to a Repair Ship, which was what I ended up spending the rest of my life as. During that time was when I met you... I remember watching you and your crew work. I myself was somewhat jealous that there was a younger ship that could perform my assigned duties better than me. I guess that is what happens when you get old, you get passed up eventually."

"Aww, that's flattering to think of me like that, but theres no need to think that way now. In this new life, we never truly age as long as we take care of ourselves with repairs and eating."

Just then, Akashi noticed that Yuubari was eavsdropping on their conversation from the next table.

"I mean, just look at Yuubari! As old and haggard as she is, she still looks like a teenager!" Akashi teased, continuing from where she left off earlier.

"Excuse me, did you just call me an old haggard, Akashi?" Yuubari said as she turned to face the Repair Ship's table.

"Yes, I mean, we all are literally old now, don'tcha think?"

"Well... Yeah, but..." Yuubari pouted, "I'm not a haggard! That was uncalled for."

"Maybe so, but hopefully that teaches you not to listen in on people's conversations."

"Ugh, whatever. I just wanted to make sure that you two were getting along and stuff. You tease me way too often, you know."

"I know, and I'm sorry for saying rude things, but it's just so funny when you blush like that."

"Wha... I am not blushing!" Yuubari said as she frantically felt her cheeks.

She was definitely blushing.

"Hehe, you two are way too cute!" Asahi mused as she held her face in her hands and smiled.

Still pouting, Yuubari stood up and crossed her arms, "Well fine, I'll leave you two alone. I've got to get back to work anyway. Those weapons aren't gonna build themselves, you know."

With that, Yuubari stomped out of the Cafeteria leaving Akashi and Asahi to their own conversation once again.

"So, I take it you know her well, Akashi?"

"Yeah, we go way back to the beginning of the KanMusu program. I love her to death, she is my best friend after all."

"I see. Well anyway, I'm just about done eating. We can head back and finish the day if you would like."

"Yeah, let's finish strong. You're help has been invaluable!"

With that, the pair left their empty plates for Mamiya to clean and headed back to the Workshop.

The rest of the day went overwhelmingly smoothly, and before the girls knew it, the day was at an end. Akashi finished filling out the daily log at nearly the same time as Asahi returned from tending to the last batch of damaged ship girls. The time was nearing 8:00 PM.

"So, is the day almost over?" Asahi asked, "I really need to get back to my room and meditate before bedtime."

"Yes, we are done, but before you go I have some things I need to talk to you about."

Asahi waited silently as Akashi stamped the log she had just finished and placed it in the folder near the door for Ooyodo to pick up later.

"Alright." Akashi started, "Firstly, don't forget to grab dinner from Mamiya's before 10:00 PM so she can mark your name off for all three meals."

"I won't forget." Asahi reassured.

"Secondly, don't forget to try to come into work earlier tomorrow so I can show you how to set everything up. We will work on a better schedule soon, but for now we just need to continue showing you everything. Okay?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Asahi replied with a hearty salute.

Smiling from the show of respect, Akashi took off her work hat and called it a day. "You're dismissed Asahi, great work today."

With that, Asahi bowed, turned, and walked to Mamiya's to grab her last meal while Akashi took it upon herself to shut everything down in the Workshop.

"The future looks bright, very bright." She said to herself as she turned the lights off and headed to grab some food herself.

Part 4: What the Future Holds:

\- The following day, Asahi showed up to the Workshop at 7:30 AM so she could learn the process that Akashi went through to prepare for the day.

Akashi allowed her to do everything while she simply spewed out the instructions. It went rather well, Asahi continuing to prove that she was a capable Repair Ship. Afterwards, the pair worked tirelessly throughout the day as the Operations continued. At the end of the day, Akashi again praised Asahi on her quick progress and promised to begin teaching her some of the more complex matters soon.

The following day, the two agreed to adopt a new schedule: At 7:00 AM, the pair would head down to Mamiya's and eat breakfast there together. Since Asahi's food serving was quite large, Akashi would leave for the Workshop at 7:30 AM to get started on half of the daily preparations. 15 minutes later, at 7:45 AM, Asahi would arrive and finish the other half of preparations, and thus they would begin the work day together at 8:00 AM, as usual.

However, on this day Akashi and Asahi were assigned to a task that was unusual for their role: convoy duty.

"Ugh, I hate running with convoys." Akashi grumbled after she read the e-mail from the Admiral.

"C...convoys? Like going out to s-sea?" Asahi asked nervously.

"Yeah, every once in a while the navy will use us to transport supplies when they're in a pinch. Now is one of those times, sadly."

"Oh... So, where will we be going?"

"Just to Minami-Tori-Shima. It isn't nearly as far away as some of the other convoys go, so we should be back in a few hours."

"Oh... Alright then, if I must."

30 minutes later, the Repair Ships were standing in the launch bay waiting for the signal to depart.

"Ahm... Hey, Akashi?" Asahi asked worriedly, "There won't be any danger of submarines on the journey, right?"

"There shouldn't be, the seas where we're going are pretty clear, but I can't promise it won't happen. Why, are you afraid of them?"

"Well, yes... kind of. I don't mean to be a burden or anything, but..."

Suddenly, flashing red lights turned on and the signal for the girls to set sail was given.

"Don't worry Asahi, our destroyers and escorts are excellent at ASW. They'll keep us safe!" Akashi said in reassurance just before she plunged down the launch chute into the water below.

"Not from what I remember." Asahi muttered as she prepared to follow suit.

Over the next few hours, the convoy slowly steamed toward their destination. Although Asahi had to use a bit more power than most of the other ships, she easily kept up the pace. Akashi marveled at how elegant she appeared to be despite the fact that this was Asahi's first time at sea in her rigging.

"You're doing great, Asahi. Just a little further now." She praised her over the radio.

Moments later, the convoy's escorting destroyers began breaking off the formation toward the same direction. Akashi immediately knew what was wrong and prepared to make evasive manouvers if the escorts gave the signal.

Sure enough, a bright red flare shot up from one of the destroyers momemts later. "Evasive manouvers!" Akashi yelled out.

The convoy began a hard turn toward the enemy submarine that the destroyers were after. Asahi followed suit, but soon after she heard a snap that definitely wasn't normal. As she tried to turn, she noticed that she was continuing in a straight line.

"Torpedoes!" She heard from one of the other convoy ships in the distance.

Momemts later, Asahi spotted a spread of 6 torpedoes closing in on the convoy. Luckily, it looked like 5 of them were going to miss because of the manouvers, but one seemed to be on a collision course with Asahi.

"Oh no." She began mumbeling to herself. "It's just like back then... No, this is worse! This time I can see it coming, yet I can't turn! Oh god, someone help me! I can't turn, I don't want to die!" She yelled, this time frantically waving her arms as she began to sob.

Akashi turned her head and immediately saw the predicament: One of Asahi's main shafts had somehow snapped, cutting off her ability to manipulate her rudder. She had to do something quick, or that torpedo would surely strike her.

Looking around, Akashi got a brilliant but risky idea. Picking up her anchor and twirling it around in the air like a lasso, she hoped to latch it onto Asahi's rig and turn her for herself. She had learned this technique from some of the American ship girls that were stationed in Japan a while back. After carefully taking aim, she hummed the anchor at Asahi, latching it onto her tall funnel. When she was sure that the line was secure, Akashi drew up all 10,000 of her horsepower and heaved!

Asahi, feeling herself being jerked by something, peered through her tear soaked palms to see that, somehow, she was beginning to turn. Looking around, she saw what Akashi had done and was immediately relieved.

"Asahi, full reverse!" Akashi yelled out.

Throwing her throttle in reverse, she slowed down to a crawl quickly. Soon enough, she observed the torpedo that would have otherwise destroyed her pass by harmlessly about 40 feet ahead. Off in the distance, she heard a loud explosion followed by cheers from the destroyers. Akashi slowly drifted up beside her.

"Sounds like they got the submarine. Are you alright?" She asked as she put her hand on Asahi's shoulder.

"Y-yes. I'll be fine. I'm sorry for losing my grip, I just didn't want to go down that way again."

"Again?"

"I guess I should have told you, but yes, my previous life was ended by a submarine. I was on my way back to Japan after performing repairs for some of our ships in Singapore when we came under attack. I took some torpedoes and sank very quickly. I never saw it coming."

"I'm very sorry, Asahi. This shouldn't have happened, but your rigging malfunctioned. Here, let me fix it real quick and we'll head back to base right now. To hell with the cargo."

"Now, you shouldn't be swearing, Akashi. I'll be fine, I promise."

"Nonsense. We are going home. We'll dump off what cargo we have on the other ships and we're gonna get..."

"Stop, Akashi dear, we must complete our mission for our country."

"To HELL with the country, I don't want to lose you again Mom!"

For a few moments, Asahi stared at a sobbing Akashi with surprise, all the while she was still attempting to repair her damaged rigging.

"D-did you just call me Mother? Mother... I..."

After another pause, in which she put her hand on Akashi's face to attempt to calm her, the two finally looking into each other's eyes.

"I've never had a daughter, Akashi." Asahi began, "But if I did, I couldn't imagine it being anyone other than you."

Asahi pulled Akashi into a tight embrace as the two began weeping softly into the other's shoulder.

"Thank you for saving me, my daughter. If it makes you feel better, then let's head home this one time."

"Yes, please. Let's go."

After unloading their cargo onto the other convoy ships and some of the escorts, the two Fleet Maidens, now Mother and Daughter, sailed back home side by side.

The KanMusu program had never before experienced ships that had treated each other as such, but nonetheless it proved to be quite the morale boost throughout the fleet. There was a celebratory party that weekend in which everyone was deeply moved by Akashi's speech on her new relationship with 'Mom'.

So, what does the future hold for these two? Nobody knows for sure, but one thing is for certain: that two old partners will forever be together again, working behind the scenes to ensure that the KanMusu are always in fighting shape.

Now, if only they could keep Aoba away from them for more than 5 minutes at a time, everything would be perfect.

~Fin


	2. A Survey Ship? Here's My Opinion!

_A/N: For those who missed it, Chapter 1 has been completed in full, so have a read if you didn't already_. _Also, it should be noted that all of these one-shots will be taking place in the same universe, so enjoy the continuity._

 **Chapter 2** **: A Survey Ship? Here's My Opinion!**

Part 1: A Terrible Life

\- "For the last damn time, I'm not that kind of Survey Ship!"

The small, petite girl's thunderous voice finally caused the two soldiers to stop laughing and start listening.

The girl continued, "I'm not here to listen to your stupid opinions, I'm here to take measurements of the ocean! I couldn't care less about what you think, now let me in this gate or I will happily shove my 120mm guns up both of your..."

"Okay, okay! Please, calm down! We sincerely apologise. We swear to never harass you in such a way again." One of the guards said as he opened up the gate to the Yokosuka Naval Base, the other one bowing his head in shame.

This was the daily life of Tsukushi, the Japanese KanMusu program's one and only Oceanographic Survey Ship. She had been teased and picked on from the very start, although it wasn't because of her looks. She was a bit undersized for an adult, yes, but her slim features and long, light brown hair could be described as naturally appealing to many. Additionally, her half-rimmed glasses and childish face gave her an Akigumo-esque vibe, and Akigumo was cute, right?

Anyway, she was also significantly more intelligent than the average KanMusu, mainly because her job required it. Complex equasions, comprehensive geography, knowledge of the seabed and coral reef systems, and the dreaded Pythagorean Theorem were all necessary items to know when surveying a patch of ocean for use as an anchorage, a future naval base, or otherwise. She had tons of books in her room about such topics, and she studied them often. This is precisely where the teasing came from: her role in the fleet as a Survey Ship.

Unfortunately, over the years the verbal abuse from her fellow ship girls (mostly destroyers and a few rude capital ships and auxiliaries) had the effect of diminishing her own self-worth to the fleet. In other words, she gradually began to view herself as useless to the war effort and has always constantly belittled herself since.

"A Survey Ship, what kind of a joke must that sound like to them?" She sobbed as she ran across the courtyard as fast as she could and into the Auxiliary Ship Living Quarters.

Running up to the second floor, down a hallway and into her room, she slammed the door as she made it inside. Completely out of her wits by now, she threw herself onto her bed and continued crying into the pillows.

"I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT!" She yelled, "Why does it have to be me? It's always like, ' _Oooh, Tsukushi-san, let me tell you what I think about'_ this and that and whatever! I don't care! Just leave me alone!"

After a few more minutes of sobbing, she heard a soft knock at the door. Surprised, she jumped out of bed and frantically rubbed her eyes and sniffled her nose in an attempt to make it look like she hadn't been crying, to little effect. Her face was so red she looked sunburned, and her eyes were so bloodshot it appeared that she hadn't slept in days. Regardless of her appearance, she still had to answer the door.

"I'm coming." She said softly, her voice still wobbly from her episode. She was prepared to tell off whomever it was since she really wanted to be left alone, but as she opened the door...

"Oh! Um... Hey, Tsukushi. I just... I heard yelling and I saw you running across the Base up from my room... so, um... Is everything okay?" A nervous young man asked.

The last person that Tsukushi expected to see at her door this late at night was the Admiral's Son... the Admiral's _handsome_ Son, Hayato. Doing her best to suck up her terrible mood, she tried to put on a ' _everything's fine'_ face, but failing miserably.

Sighing heavily, she responded, "No, nothing is okay. The soldiers at the front gate picked on me again, as does everyone else."

"That's terrible! I mean, why would they do that to you, you're be... I mean, um, they should know better. We can tell my Dad and he'll show them!" Hayato declared with the raise of a fist.

"No, I don't want to trouble the Admiral with such things. I know he is stressed out enough already. He doesn't need to worry about me. Now, if that's all, Hayato, we both should really get some sleep." She said as she slowly began closing the door.

"Wait!" Hayato pleaded as he reached in and lightly grabbed her wrist, "Are you sure you're okay? Let me come in and talk to you for a bit."

"Fine, you can come in, but only because you're being nice!" Tsukushi responded, now beginning to anticipate this to be some kind of a prank.

Allowing him to enter, Tsukushi shut the door and sat back down on her bed. The two remained in silence for a few moments before Hayato finally stepped forward and pulled something out of his pocket.

"I... Um, I brought you some hard candies. Well, I didn't mean to, they were just here in my pocket when I ran over. My Dad brought me a whole box of them." He said as he presented a trio of individually wrapped strawberry candies in his hand.

"Oh, thank you. Strawberry is one of my favourite flavors." Tsukushi blankly said as she cautiously accepted the gift.

A few more moments of awkward silence passed as Tsukushi ate one of the candies and Hayato stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets, trying to think of something to say. He knew how he felt about the girl sitting in front of him, but he didn't have the courage to outright tell her or to ask her on a date. After going through a few scenarios in his head, he came up with an idea that could possibly get Tsukushi closer to him.

"Um, hey. I have an idea that could get everyone to stop messing with you... If you want to listen?"

"Hayato... Ugh, fine, what's your idea?"

"I... Um, well... If we sit together at breakfast tomorrow, nobody will pick on you because they'll think you're with me."

Tsukushi's heart thumped for a second at the thought of sitting with Hayato in the Cafeteria, but she responded with some doubt of the idea, "Are you sure about that, Hayato? What makes you think that'll work?"

"I'm the Admiral's son! Everybody's so nice to me already, and I've only just begun my duties on the Base. I've been charged with handling the scout operations, and I've made a lot of friends very quickly. There's no way any of them would mess with you if they saw us together."

"Well... I don't know..." Tsukushi responded as she crossed her arms, still reluctant to accept his help in fear of being tricked.

"Tsukushi... Please?" Hayato pleaded as he took his hands out of his pockets and brought them to his chest, as if he was praying for her to say yes.

Tsukushi looked at him long and hard, and she still could not find any ill intent on his behalf, and she liked to think that she had got pretty good at detecting such things. Thus, seeing no better alternative (and really wanting to spend some time with Hayato), she decided to follow along with his plan.

"W-well. Okay, but, I've never really sat with anyone in the Cafeteria before. I usually just get my food and leave, but... I'll stay with you if you really think this will work."

"It will, I promise! I really need to go now before my Dad sees that I'm gone, but I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Oh, okay... Bye, Hayato."

The young man rushed out of the door and back to his room in the upper levels of the Administrative Building, while Tsukushi laid down in bed and stared at the ceiling while letting her mind race with thoughts.

' _Why is Hayato being so kind to me? What does he gain from doing so?_ _Could it be, that Hayato likes me? He's single right? I think so... Ah! I shouldn't jump ahead of things, this could still be a trick. After all, he's only spoken to me 3 times before now. He arrived here only a few weeks ago... I was there in the Admiral's Office when he first arrived. I remember him smiling at me and grabbing my hand when the Admiral introduced me... He looked so dreamy..._ _This... Might be... Alright...'_

Tsukushi gradually fell asleep with the image of Hayato smiling brightly at her with soft eyes. For the first time in a long time, she slept peacefully.

Part 2: Sweet Victory

The following morning Hayato asked his Father, the Admiral, if it would be fine if he had a friend join him for breakfast at their reserved table. Since the Admiral always allowed his administrative staff to sit with them if they so chose, he decided to allow it.

"I guess this was to be expected, there are a lot of younger ship-girls around the Base who are around your age. Who are you bringing, Son?" The Admiral asked of Hayato.

"Um... well, I asked Tsukushi to eat breakfast with me. She seems like she could use a friend."

"Indeed. She's always seemed like she's a bit of a loner, and she's never really opened up to me. Maybe you could help her break out of her shell."

"Well, she's a loner because..." Hayato paused, "Well, nevermind. She told me not to bother you with it. Sorry I said anything, Father."

"No problem, you help her as you see fit. She technically is part of your scout team now, so it is your duty to support her. Be mindful, though, that all of the girls on the Base are like daughters to me. Flesh and blood or not, I will punish anyone who hurts any of them, even you Boy."

"I really do want to help her, Dad. She's so bea... I mean, she's, erm..."

"Beautiful? You mean to say that she's beautiful?" The Admiral pressed.

"Y-yes..." Hayato responded defeatedly.

"Then say it. Build up some confidence and tell her how you feel. I know it can be hard... Even all these years after your Mother's passing, I still cannot bring myself to confess to the new woman that I love."

"Who is that?"

"Someone who's always been by my side since I've become an Admiral... but, my problems are not important now, what is important is for you to not be afraid to face your feelings. You're the young one here after all."

"Alright Dad, I'll try to work myself up to telling her how I feel soon, when the time is right." Hayato declared.

"That's my Boy! Let's head down to breakfast now. I'm starving! We've got a lot of work to do today."

Less than 30 minutes later, Hayato and his Father were sitting at their designated table in Mamiya's Cafe, with Nagato and Ooyodo deciding to join them. Hayato found himself sitting near the edge of his seat waiting for Tsukushi to show up. The Admiral took notice of this, and decided to help him relax.

"Don't worry Son, she'll be here soon." He whispered into Hayato's ear in reassurance.

Sure enough, as if on cue, in walked Tsukushi in her typical jacket and jeans, a rather western look for the average KanMusu. Hayato didn't mind though, he couldn't take his eyes off of her from the time she entered until she had made her way to their table. His chest began tightening with an emotion which he had never felt as she claimed her seat to his left.

"Hey, T-Tsukishi. Welcome to our t-table... I..."

"Hello there, Tsukushi!" The Admiral said, interrupting Hayato's stuttering, "My Son is so happy that you could make it. Here, use this tablet to order your meal. It should be here shortly. Us here at the Admiral's Victory Table (TM) get top priority when ordering, which basically means we don't have to stand in line."

Taking the tablet from his hand, Tsukushi ordered her favourite breakfast items and placed it down again. She awkwardly smiled at Hayato before shyly turning away, her face now a deep shade of red.

To help calm herself down, she began looking around the Cafeteria to see if anyone else had taken notice of her. Sure enough, a good number of the destroyers were taking short glances at her before returning to their own meals. She counted Akatsuki, Inazuma, Hatsuharu, Shiratsuyu, Yuudachi, Murasame, Yuugumo, Teruzuki and many other destroyers giving the pair various looks ranging from disgust to slight anger. She even heard Shimakaze let out a quiet ' _Oh_!' when she had spotted the two together. It appeared that Hayato was quite popular among the destroyer-girls, and seeing them all upset at Tsukushi's place next to him at the reserved table made her feel glorious.

 _'Heh heh, suck it. He's gonna be mine, not yours.'_ Tsukushi thought to herself as she bathed in the sweetness of victory.

Moving her attention to the capital ships, many of them didn't notice her at all. Among the ones who did, namely Shoukaku, Myoukou, and Atago, had simply smiled and sat down to eat at their respective tables. Even Ashigara, who Tsukushi was slightly worried about, ignored them, implying that her heart must still be set on the Admiral himself.

All of the escorts, submarines, and other auxiliaries also seemed to be either indifferent or only slightly annoyed at her presence next to Hayato, except for one particular Seaplane Tender. Of all the people who could possibly get overly upset at Tsukushi's positon next to Hayato, it just had to be Akitsushima, who also happened to be Hayato's personal assistant in the Scouting Division.

She had just received her food from the serving counter and was making her way to her seat when she spotted them together. Akitsushima froze and let her mouth drop to the ground, her eyes affixed on Tsukushi. Anger became obvious as her eyes got wider and wider until the Admiral waved her over.

 _'Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!'_ Tsukushi shouted internally as Akitsushima made her way over to the Admiral's Victory Table (TM).

"Akitsushima! I forgot to inform you earlier, but since my Son has chosen you as his personal assistant and second in command of the Scouting Division, you are now technically a part of the administrative team. That means you can sit here with us for breakfast and dinner, if you so wish." The Admiral smiled, apparently oblivious to the anger in the girl's eyes.

"Oh, excellent!" She shouted rather maliciously.

Sitting down directly across from Tsukushi, the ominous glare continued as Akitsushima began eating her food in silence. Tsukushi, of course, felt uncomfortable, especially considering that she was one of the girls that had picked on her in the past. She really wanted to leave and nearly asked to be excused before Hayato softly placed his hand on her arm.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a curious wink of the eye.

"Y-yes. I'm just r-really hungry is all." She responded with a desperate wink of her own.

Hayato nodded his head and responded ,"Our meal should be here soon. We'll talk lat..."

"Ahm! Hayato, what's going on? May I ask why SHE is here? She's making my Taitei-chan uncomfortable." Akitsushima stated evily.

Hayato cut his eyes at her, "Your Taitei isn't even here, Akitsushima. Now listen, you better keep your mouth shu..."

"Besides," The Seaplane Carrier interrupted, "I'M your assistant, shouldn't you be sitting with me and not this little weirdo."

"Akitsushima!" Nagato angrily intruded.

"No, Nagato. Let my Son handle this, he needs to learn." The Admiral commanded as he held his hand to her.

"Akitsushima." Hayato began as he stood up, "You need to keep your opinions to yourself. I asked Tsukushi to sit with me, and if you don't like that, then oh-well. You shouldn't be outwardly hostile to your peers. You're both on the Scout Team, and you'll need to work together on missions when I order you to."

Akitsushima appeared unfazed by Hayato's commands, standing up herself with a smug look on her face.

"I'm just jealous, my Commander. It didn't occur to me that you cared at all for this little brat. She's never been liked by anyone before, which makes me wonder, are you just being nice to her out of pity?"

At this point, everyone at the table was both angry and surprised at the Seaplane Tender's seemingly uncharacteristic comments. Tsukushi was on the edge of crying, and was desperately trying to hold back her tears. The Admiral, Nagato, and Ooyodo were all in various states of disbelief, and Hayato's blood was boiling with rage. Everything in him wanted to grab Tsukushi and leave, but he had a better idea. This was his chance to prove his confidence to his Father and to reveal his feelings towards the Survey Ship.

He took a deep breath before he began, "Akitsushima... What you are saying is a disgrace and a disappointment. Tsukushi is here because I care for her and her well-being. She's... she's a beautiful woman to me, and she deserves the same level of respect that everyone else gets, regardless of her role in the fleet. She WILL get that respect from me if from nobody else, and from now on, that's all that matters."

"Oh whatev..."

"SILENCE!" Hayato shouted as he slammed his fist onto the table, "Are you trying to destroy your reputation? I can make this as loud as I want, so everyone on Base can hear the embarassment you're about to go through."

Nearly the whole Cafeteria had ceased what they were doing and turned their attention to the Admiral's Victory Table (TM) in anticipation. Hayato's heart was pounding so hard that he could feel it in his eyes, and he began to sweat on his forehead.

"Well?!" He demanded from Akitsushima, who was still standing in disbelief at the young man's actions. Still, she had not yet been broken.

Regaining herself, she retorted, "Okay, little Admiral's boy, show me what you've got!"

Knowing he couldn't back down, Hayato did the only thing he could think of doing as a man. He looked over to Tsukushi, who was staring at him with amazement, and grabbed her by the arms. She shot up from her seat from the force of his tug, but she came to rest gently in his embrace. Their eyes met and Hayato leaned in close.

"You're so beautiful, Tsukushi." He said as he went in for the kiss.

She happily accepted, and returned the embrace quickly as he tightened his grip on her waist. The entire Cafeteria, now filled with nearly everyone on the Base, and definitely all of the ship-girls, gasped in response. Akitsushima crossed her arms and let out a grunt of defeat; Shimakaze stood up and let out the loudest _'OH!'_ she could muster; Yuudachi let out an aggrivated ' _Poi!'_ ; and many of the other destroyers covered their mouths and faces in disbelief. After a few moments, one of the male kitchen staff workers shouted out a loud _'Aoo!'_ , which was followed by a few cheers and whistles from the likes of Kongou and Jun'you, respectively. Even Iowa chimed in with some weird shout of her own.

In what felt like an eternity for the young love-birds, they finally let each other go, and turned to face the crowd, Akitsushima in particular. Completely stunned by his own actions, it took a minute for Hayato to recover, but he soon put on a smirk of his own and crossed his arms.

"There, Akitsushima. Now if you please, my new assistant and I have a meal to enjoy together."

"Ah! New assistant!? You can't just fire me like that!"

"Oh, I can and I will. In fact, I already have. Go find somewhere else to sit!"

"Grrrrr... You just wai-ah!" Akitsushima stopped as a large, firm hand landed on her shoulder from behind.

"Ah, Musashi!" The Admiral mused, "Such a great time for you to show up."

"Heh, what are this Musashi's orders for this morning, Commander?"

"Well, it just so happens that our Chinese friends need to borrow a Seaplane Tender for a few months. It looks like we've found the perfect volunteer, so why don't you take her there? I'm sure that Ning Hai and Ping Hai will be very pleased."

"Right away, Commander. Let's go, little punk." Musashi said as she began dragging Akitsushima out of the Cafeteria.

"No, no! Please, I'm sorry." She pleaded, "I won't ever disobey again. Wait! Admiral! At least let me grab my Taitei-chan! Anywhere but China! Not Chinaaaaa...!"

The Cafeteria once again fell into silence as the doors slammed closed. After a few moments, Kongou was the first to stand up and congradulate the new couple. She also invited them over to their table for some of the Kongou-sisters' Burning Love advice. Since there was no way of ever saying no to Kongou, they found themselves there in no time. Soon, normal activities resumed, with only some minor broken hearts that would need to be ironed out over the next few hours.

The Admiral smiled proudly as he watched his Son get peppered with questions from Kongou. Ooyodo soon left to get the work day started, leaving only Nagato with him.

"You know." She started, "He's going to make a fine Admiral one day."

"I believe you're right. I couldn't have handled that much better myself." The Admiral half-joked.

"Speaking of that, are you ever going to confess to the one who you have feelings for? Everyone's just _dying_ to know who it is. Mutsu talks about it all the time."

Shocked by the question, the Admiral nearly choked on the piece of toast he was eating, "Ahm! W-well, uh. I don't know. I want to, but I'm just not ready yet. I'm not sure how to go about it with her."

"That's understandable. After all, it might be dangerous to confess to her in public like that..." Nagato smiled as she leaned in to whisper into his ear, "...Because if you did that to me, I would freaking kill you."

Baffled, the Admiral could do nothing but sit in his astonishment. With a slight smirk on her face, Nagato stood up and began walking out of the Cafeteria.

"See you in the Office, big guy." She teased as she left the Admiral in a state of total disbelief.

' _How in the Hell did she know?"_ He wondered to himself as he finished the last sip of his coffee.

Afterwards, nobody really teased Tsukushi ever again. She and Hayato expertly conducted scouting missions for the fleet and they both rose through the ranks very quickly. The future of this young couple remains cloudy, but as long as they remain diligent and close, there's nowhere they couldn't go.

~Fin


	3. A Troublesome Minelayer

**Chapter 3: A Troublesome Minelayer**

 **Gun Calibre** **Note:** I understand that some readers may not like the way that I describe gun calibres. I use millimeters instead of centimeters (ex. 120mm instead of 12cm), which may sound odd to some viewers. I apologise for anyone who dislikes it, and my reason for writing it this way is the fact that I am American, so the Metric system isn't my forte. Millimeters is simply much easier for me to understand and, most importantly, remember in relation to inches.

Proving a Point

The Japanese Minelayer Okinoshima was not the type of girl to back down when her abilities as a warship were challenged, especially when said challenger was a pre-Yuubari designed light cruiser. Her most common opponents were, rather unsurprisingly, Tenryuu and Kiso, with the occasional spat with Sendai as well as some of the Nagara-class. In fact, the only light cruiser of any type that she seemed to truly get along with was Yuubari herself. The Minelayer also had somewhat turbulent relationships with the elder heavy cruisers of the fleet in both the Furutaka and Aoba-classes, especially Kako. To further put things into perspective, she was labelled as a 5-star troublemaker in the Admiral's " _Shipgirls to Always Investigate After Every Incident_ " handbook.

On the other hand, Okinoshima had more than proven herself to be a capable KanMusu in the past. Her minefields had been confirmed to have sunk well over a dozen Abyssal submarines and nearly a dozen more of their surface vessels. She even managed to gun down and sink both a Tau-class light cruiser and a Na-class destroyer all on her own while on a sortie, herself sustaining no damage while simultaniously towing a severely damaged Etorofu to safety. These feats were rather impressive for a ship that wasn't designed for actual surface combat. After all, those two, twin-140mm gun turrets of her's were intended to serve as shore bombardment tools rather than combat implements.

On this particular day, however, she had been re-assigned to Rabaul as part of the 6th Scouting Division. This temporary squadron was led by the Seaplane Tender Mizuho and also consisted of her rival Tenryuu and the four Akatsuki-class destroyers of Destroyer Division 6. Their objective was aimed at laying a large defensive minefield in the Bismarck Sea to the northwest of the harbor to help deter Abyssal submarine sorties that had recently begun to probe those waters from their hidden bases in New Guinea.

The team set sail shortly after sunrise, with Okinoshima carrying her full capacity of 500 naval mines and Mizuho sacrificing all but 6 of her 24 seaplanes to carry an extra 300 more mines. Tenryuu, on the other hand, had her rigging modified to her "Escort/Anti-Aircraft" configuration, in which she carried four, twin-127mm Dual-purpose weapons instead of her standard 140mm cannons. This greatly increased her rate of fire and overall shell output, but ultimately left her with only slightly more firepower than the average Japanese destroyer (and more importantly to her, less firepower than Okinoshima). Tenryuu understood the importance of the configuration, but regardless, she hated it to its core.

The task force sailed due northwest from the harbour at a speed of 14 knots with Mizuho in the lead, Tenryuu close behind, and Okinoshima in the rear, with Akatsuki and Hibiki on the left flank and Ikazuchi and Inazuma on the right. It took nearly two hours to reach the Operation Area, and it would take another two hours to lay the mines, and two more still to get back to port, for a total of six hours at sea. At least they would get back in time for lunch.

Okinoshima got to work as quickly as they had arrived, with Mizuho following alongside in assistance and Tenryuu and the destroyers forming a search ring, scanning both the sky and the horizon for any potential threats. Okinoshima's advanced systems allowed for her to lay a dozen mines at a time, however she preferred to lay them in sets of four for better overall placement. It was a craft that she had developed herself, and she prided herself heavily on it. Tenryuu, never having actually been on a mission with her before, was genuinely curious as to why she used that technique. After all, Tenryuu's standard configuration allowed for her to carry 48 naval mines of her own, and she wanted all the tips that she could get in case she ever needed to use them.

After a half an hour of hesitation, Tenryuu swallowed her pride and slowly steamed up alongside Okinoshima to inquire. Just as she was about to speak, she noticed the minelayer glance at her with a quirk of the eye for a split-second before letting loose a quartet of mines into the sea. This action successfully sent the light cruiser into a slight rage. After all, nobody gets to cut their eyes at her and not get a piece of her mind. Thus, as innocent as her question was, Tenryuu still managed to ask it with a bit of hostility.

"Hey, Okinoshima. Why do 'ya only lay a few mines at a time? 'Ya scared you'll blow yourself up or something?"

"Hah!" Okinoshima shouted, "I was just waiting for you to open your big mouth, you just can't resist taunting me!"

"Wait, I-"

"Shut it, grandma." Okinoshima interrupted, "Why don't you just let the more modern cruiser do the work her way, hmm?"

Mizuho, who was standing mere feet away from the boiling argument, rolled her eyes but stood by quietly, preferring not to get entwined in their scuffle. Besides, she knew what was coming anyway; it was the same thing every time and would last at least fifteen minutes.

"C-cruiser?! Since when have you held that designation?!" Tenryuu asked, thoroughly confused.

"Since I've been built, silly. Don't tell me that I don't fit the requirements."

"Um, no..." Tenryuu replied, still trying to wrap her head around what was being said, "It's not possible for you to be classified as a cruiser."

"Idiot, I am indeed a cruiser! I can do everything that you can do! Heck, I can probably do more than you can do!" Okinoshima shot as she prepared to arm another string of naval mines.

"No you can't! You're slow as hell, and you can't equip torpedoes, only those stupid mines!" Tenryuu backfired, crossing her arms.

"Come on, Tenryuu! It even says so in my official title: a Cruiser-Minelayer! You just can't get over the fact that you're ob-so-lete!" Okinoshima blasted as she pointed an accusatory finger.

"Obsolete?!" Tenryuu fumed at the unnecessary blow, "I'll show you... I bet I can lay mines just as good as you can! I might be old technology, but I'm still relevant because I'm versatile. The best hope you'll ever have at being useful outside of minelaying is transport duty. Hah!"

"What is it that you are doing right now, Tenryuu? Escort duty, as if that's any better?" Okinoshima grinned evily as she let another quartet of mines slip softly into the ocean.

"Dah! I'm hardly ever on these sorts of missions! I'm normally on... well, um..."

"Resource expeditions?"

Sadly, Okinoshima was right. Tenryuu usually found herself on expeditions and other miscellaneous work. It had been ages since she was assigned to a combat sortie. Regardless, the light cruiser still felt like she could take on the biggest of dangers, and surely a lone minelayer would be no match for the likes of her.

"Whatever, none of that even matters! Next time we're both back home, let me switch over to my normal configuration, and we'll see who's the best then. I guarantee I won't lose!" Tenryuu confidently declared, flexing her toned biceps.

"Careful old timer, I don't want to break you too badly." Okinoshima replied equally as confident, cracking her knuckles before arming another set of mines.

"Um, ladies..." Mizuho quietly interrupted, pointing to the sky, "I think it's time that we focus on more urgent matters."

As the arguing ship girls looked out towards the horizon, they both noticed that dozens of aircraft were heading their way, and they in no manner looked friendly. Moments later, the destroyers steamed up to the group looking slightly panicked.

"Radar is picking up nearly a hundred hostile aircraft heading this way, nanodesu." Inazuma informed the group, being the only ship of the squadron armed with air-warning radar.

"Abort the mission, we have to get out of here! Tenryuu, you're the AA specialist, so you take charge from here on out. Get us home!" Mizuho ordered as she loaded her trio of twin-127mm guns with flak rounds.

"Oh, right. Um..." Tenryuu fumbled with her thoughts as she faced the sudden pressure of an imminent air attack, something that had been absent from her life for a long time.

"Alzheimer's kicking in, Tenryuu?!" Okinoshima shouted, "Tell us what to do, damnit!"

"S-shut up! Okay, uh..." The light cruiser ordered as she cleared her head, "Everyone, get into a diamond formation with the slowest ship up front at full speed ahead for Rabaul! I'll follow behind in second and the other large ship should be behind me in third! Destroyers, set up on the flanks, two to each side, just like how we came here! Once in formation, match your speed to the lead ship, go now! Don't forget to load up your flak shells!"

Embarassingly, Okinoshima knew that she was the slowest ship in the squadron, so she began racing as fast as she could in the direction of Rabaul.

"20 knots everyone!" She hesitantly shouted over the headset, "My top speed is 20 knots! Set yourselves to that!"

In an unprecedented moment of maturity, Tenryuu resisted the urge to taunt Okinoshima further about her lack of speed. After all, she had a job to do that overruled all of her other quarrels for the time being. Thus, she filed in behind the minelayer as everyone else got into position.

As the horde of aircraft approached the outer edge of the squadron's AA ring, Tenryuu concluded that they would need air support or they would surley perish.

"Akatsuki!" She barked over the short-range headset, "Get on the horn and tell Rabaul that we need fighter support, and lots of it!"

Akatsuki made the request, but the response she received was not to the destroyer's liking.

" _We're sorry, 6th Scouting Division... *Static*... Are no aircraft available at this time._ "

Rather upset, Akatsuki did the only thing that she knew how to do as a proper lady: Cry.

"We're all gonna die, you meanies!" She screamed as she cut the call, tears streaming down her face.

"What's wrong?" Tenryuu asked over the headset.

"They have no planes available." Akatsuki managed to say between her sobs.

"You're freaking kidding me!"

As Tenryuu fumed at the refusal of support, the enemy strike groups were just about to come within range of their heavy AA. She had to take control of the situation so she could prove to Okinoshima, and herself, that she could still lead the charge.

"Everyone, ready yourselves to fire! Akatsuki, suck it up, we can do this!" Tenryuu barked as everyone brandished their 127mm guns up to the sky.

Sadly for Okinoshima, her 140mm guns weren't dual-purpose, and she hadn't brought any of those experimental shrapnel rounds along, only standard high-explosive. Instead, she readied her smaller 76mm, 25mm, and 13mm weapons for the inevitable short-range engagement that was coming.

"Now!" Tenryuu ordered as the aircraft finally came within range.

In an instant, the sky became littered with huge bursts from the 127mm flak shells. Many of the strike groups were disrupted out of formation, but very few were actually shot down.

"Damnit, I forgot to load flak!" Ikazuchi said as she rushed to exchange out her shells.

"I'm launching my planes!" Mizuho informed the group as she proceeded to send out all 6 of her catapault fighters.

"Okinoshima, launch yours too!" Tenryuu ordered.

Yup, that's right. Okinoshima had something very unique for a minelayer: A single scout plane along with its own launching catapault, recovery crane, and even a small hangar for storage. Unfortunately, her little friend was currently unarmed.

"Negative, no weapons on her!" She replied, checking it just to make sure.

"Idi... F-fine. Just keep going!" Tenryuu shouted as she again supressed her desire to scold the minelayer's lack of preparedness.

Mizuho's planes fought desparately to keep the attackers at bay for a little longer, but they were all shot down within minutes. Meanwhile, the barrage of heavy flak fire continued, and even downed a few more planes, but most of the attackers had survived. As they bore down into striking distance, the squardon's light AA guns opened up, tracer rounds littering the morning sky. All of the planes were still flying very high, however, and Tenryuu soon noticed that all of the strike aircraft were dive bombers, with no low flying torpedo bombers in sight.

"Bombs! Zig-zag!" She ordered as the aircraft began to plunge into nose dives on the formation.

"Aw, no torpedo-beats?" Okinoshima joked as she began turning hard to port, and then hard to starboard in a repetitive manner.

"Focus!" Tenryuu ordered, having just about enough of the minelayer's nonsense.

The first wave let loose their high explosive bombs to little effect. The splashes caused no damage, but Akatsuki soon found herself swallowing a mouth full of seawater from a near miss. Coughing and sputtering, her AA was completely ineffective against the second wave of attackers. As their bombs fell from the sky, Mizuho narrowly dodged one, although the resulting explosion completely drenched her clothes in water. Okinoshima, however, wasn't so lucky. One bomb struck her right on the rigging, destroying her rear mast and catching her catapault on fire.

"Wahhh!!!" She screamed in distress, "Damn, fire control, head out!"

As her little fairies began putting out the fires, another bomb from the third wave struck its mark as well. This time, it was Tenryuu who took a direct hit to her third turret, which also knocked out the fourth in the resulting explosion. A huge fire started to break out, which threatened to detonate her loaded torpedo tubes. An explosion of that calibre would surely see her sink.

Okinoshima's eyesight went red and her hearing went blank as she watched Tenryuu frantically trying to extinguish the fire that now consumed most of her lower form. Off to either side, she saw the destroyers of DesDiv6 desperately evade bombs while fiercely returning fire of their own. Behind Tenryuu, the form of Mizuho occassionally showed itself as she continued to get luckier and luckier with each near miss.

Tenryuu's fire control fairies were soon overwhelmed and retreated into safer portions of her rigging. It was clear that without help, there was no putting out that fire. Okinoshima, suddenly regaining her senses, ordered her fairies to go help save the stricken cruiser, to which they all looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Go, darn it! I've got my fire under control! Go!" She barked, to which her fairies didn't protest.

With the addition of another whole fire control team, Tenryuu finally began to beat back the flames. Eventually, the light cruiser felt safe enough to point her surviving guns back to the sky, only to be met with a target free environment.

The destroyers began cheering as the enemy planes finally broke off and retreated, probably due to having used all of their available ammunition. Still, dozens of planes had been shot down by the squadron.

"6 for me!" Akatsuki shouted smugly at her tally.

"I got 6 as well! I would have had more if I didn't forget to load the flak shells!" Ikazuchi replied.

"I counted 7 for me, nanodesu." Inazuma added quietly.

"18." Hibiki deadpanned.

"Waah!? How!?" Akatsuki asked as she pouted in defeat.

"Vodka. It helps steady the aim." Hibiki replied, pulling out a half empty bottle of the stuff from somewhere inside her uniform.

"Hibiki..." Tenryuu sighed, "I told you to leave that stuff at the base."

However, Tenryuu's attention was quickly averted as she observed Okinoshima's fairies fly back over to the minelayer, patting out the few remaining flames as they arrived.

"You!" Tenryuu shouted, pointing at her, "Why did you help me like that? I... I had it all under control!"

"No you didn't, your torpedoes would have caught fire if I didn't send help. You would be dead right about now without me."

"You!... Y-you're right." Tenryuu admitted as she slumped her head down in shame.

"It's nothing to be upset about, idiot!" Okinoshima responded, "It can happen to any of us."

Tenryuu lifted her face out of her hands to see the minelayer now standing right in front of her.

"Besides." She began with a smirk, holding out her hand toward the light cruiser, "If you had died, I wouldn't be able to kick your butt later."

Tenryuu grinned, but grabbed Okinoshima's hand, "Heh. You're right, you still haven't proved me wrong yet."

"Oh, don't you worry! I won't forget!" The minelayer said as she jerked Tenryuu along, the squadron soon resuming their course back home.

Despite their mutual challenge, as far as Tenryuu was concerned, Okinoshima had proven the one thing that mattered to her the most: She had proven that she was a friend.~


	4. A Craneship's Best Weapon

_A/N: I apologise for the short nature of this chapter. I just wanted to write something a little silly while I beef up the next few chapters. I hope you enjoy._

 **Chapter 4:** **A** **Craneship** **'s Best Weapon**

\- "Kearsarge... Remind me again why you decided to star in a commercial for that stupid brand of tape again?" Iowa asked of the craneship as they sat together in the San Diego Naval Base's Cafeteria, their eyes glued to one of the wall-mounted televisions.

"Well, I saved that cargo ship from sinking after it grounded itself on Kingman Reef, remember? Besides, that 'stupid brand of tape' really does work! I couldn't have saved that ship without it!" Kearsarge responded, still annoyed at Iowa's dismissivness.

"Whatever you say, I just can't believe that it actually wor..."

"SHHHHH! THE COMMERCIAL! WATCH!" The craneship interjected, repeatedly slapping Iowa's hand as the aforementioned advertisement began to air.

 _"Hi guys, Phil Swift here along with my great friend..."_

 _"The Craneship USS Kearsarge!"_

 _"... and we're here to show you all of the amazing powers and versatility of Flex-Tape!"_

Mr. Swift then proceeded to brandish a handheld powersaw of some type, revving it up once before speaking to the camera again.

 _"We're going to cut a few holes into Ms. Kearsarge here and patch her up with Flex-Tape and see how she performs!"_

 _"Don't worry folks, this won't hurt me one bit!"_

The commercial then cut to various second long scenes of Kearsarge being gashed open by the blades. Needless to say, many of the patrons in the Cafeteria began to feel woozy at the sight.

 _"Now for the Flex-Tape."_ Mr. Swift proclaimed as he began plastering the tape over all of the cuts that he had just made, while his pre-recorded voice lined out all of the oh-so-amazing qualities of the product.

After Phil finished taping up Kearsarge, the advertisement cut to the scene of a large pool with the craneship floating in it with her rigging. The host promptly shouted, _"And as you can see, Flex-Tape is even strong enough to keep the mightiest of naval ships afloat!"_

After another cut which showed information on how to order your own supply of Flex-Tape, Kearsarge reappeared on the screen holding a huge roll of it.

 _"The only brand I trust is Flex-tape! Eat this!"_ She loudly shouted, slapping the camera with a length of tape, the commercial ending as soon as the view was filled with black.

Iowa held her head in her hands as Kearsarge giggled in delight next to her.

"Wasn't that awesome, Iowa!? I got to be on TV!"

"Eh... not really. You literally let someone cut you up with a power saw and coat you in some tape." Iowa deadpanned back at her.

"Ah, well when you say it like that..."

" **Kearsarge, report to the Admiral's Office, ASAP."** A loud voice echoed over the intercom.

The craneship's eyes widened at the request as silence filled the cafeteria. Everyone was now staring at her.

"Well, good luck up there! I gotta skee-dadle!" Iowa shouted as she sped out of the cafeteria, leaving Kearsarge all alone in her worries.

"Ah shit, here we go again." The craneship muttered as she left her seat to head for the Admiral's Office.

Knocking lightly on the ever-so imposing door, Kearsarge turned the knob and let herself in. The Admiral and his secretary Saratoga were staring her down with displeasurable looks.

"D-did I do something wrong?" Kearsarge asked innocently.

"Something wrong?!" Saratoga snapped, "Not only did you star in a commercial without the Navy's approval, but you let a man cut your body up with a powersaw on television! And you dare to come in here and ask if you did anything wrong?! Why I oughta..."

"Sara, please calm down." The Admiral ordered as he put his hand on her shoulder.

The carrier-girl's stature relaxed and her face drooped, but anger could still be seen in her eyes.

"If I m-may present my case, Sir?" Kearsarge quietly asked, shuffling her feet anxiously.

"Yes, explain yourself, please." The Admiral inquired as he took a seat in his chair.

"W-well, Admiral Sir, I took the offer to do the commercial when they contacted me after the story broke about my heroic rescue of that cargo ship. I didn't think it would be a big deal, Sir."

"Normally, it wouldn't be." He replied, "But you allowed for your body to be damaged to showcase the capabilities of the product. Granted, the tape seemed to have performed well, but tape cannot repair a damaged ship girl. We know you also stole an Instant Repair Bucket from storage and used it to fix yourself up while nobody was looking."

The Admiral then passed a small tablet with a video of Kearsarge sneaking into one of the storage buildings, playing it for the ship in question to see.

"Ah, I'm very sorry Admiral... I shouldn't have done that. Is there any way you could forgive me?" The craneship asked while attempting to coerce the Admiral with the age-old 'puppy eyes'.

"Unfortunately for you, I must administer some form of punishment. The Navy is not at all happy with your actions, and has already had to release numerous statements regarding its stance on this ' _Flex-Tape'_ situation. It's probably only going to get worse since we are not allowed to endorse any sort of product like that, and since YOU are Navy property, many legal experts will likely try to push this sort of story. This could end up going a long way. So, as is customary for my Office, I will allow you to suggest your own punishment first. If I deem it satisfactory, that'll be all and you'll be free to go."

Silence followed for a few moments as Kearsarge contemplated her choices. In typical ship girl fashion, she decided that she wouldn't receive any sort of punishment at all.

"I'm sorry Admiral." She smiled, "But that won't be necessary."

"Oh, how so?" He asked as he stood up from his seat, leaning over his desk toward her.

"Eat this!" Kearsarge shouted as she Flex-Taped the Admiral's mouth shut, bolting out of his office and back to her quarters, firmly locking her door shut.

Saratoga had been too stunned to do anything, and she simply stood there with her mouth agape in surprise.

It was on this day that Flex-Tape proved its worth for at least one thing... Silencing your superiors.

Needless to say, sales soon skyrocketed.


End file.
